Lanyard Ahoy !

It was around 8.15 am today and I was on my four mile morning trek. I`d like to think I could run it..(maybe next week)...but this morning was warm and bright, and I had all the time in the world....so I walked it.

My route takes me just over a mile through a busy, residential feeder road into town (the wrong way), then out into the country for a couple more miles, through a village with a pub and two schools, then out past fields again; up and down a hill on a narrow pathway with scratchy overgrown gorsebushes....and I`m home. Rain, shine or snow....it`s bloody lovely.

And because I`m walking, not running most of the time, I get to say hello to other walkers, runners and cyclists on my route, and peep inside cars in the traffic queues. You see the builders on their way to their day`s work, two or three to a front bench seat; sometimes, steelcapped boots on the dashboard...another idly flicking through the morning paper while the traffic stalls a while.

You clock the solo drivers in shiny, Sunday-washed cars; crisply ironed shirtsleeves resting on windows opened wide enough for you to catch snatches of their illegal mobile chats; and women with smooth, just-straightened hair and neat office gear; sometimes smiling, sometimes snapping at back-seat, school-run squabblers.

Nearly all of them...in their work clothes. And lanyards. You know, the ribbony things round their necks to hold their company ID badges. It`s part of their 9-5 uniform. Their corporate identity. Badges with a little chip which automatic doors and security staff will recognise when the car`s parked and the working day begins.

When you love your job, an ID badge can make you feel so proud; part of the team. I remember that feeling. And I guess when you`re searching for work, you might long to feel you belong somewhere...to be able to slip one of those corporate ribbons round your neck; get some hours clocked up; some cash in the bank.

But today, a year after making the choice to take the money and run, (or sometimes walk, because I can) it was sunny out there. Everyone seemed post-Murray smiley, and smiley`s how I like to be. Looking back, lanyards can start feeling heavy sometimes, and if they do....it`s time to move on before they become millstones round your neck.

Like team briefings; impudently early alarm clocks, terribly important courses; `difficult conversations` behind closed doors, workplace primadonnas... and that aching...that longing for it to be Friday....lanyards....for me....are well and truly in the past.

That realisation made me flash the broadest smile at a bearded bloke (no visible lanyard...) cycling into town today. God knows what he thought.

I`ll see if he smiles back at me tomorrow :)

Happy Monday.